Jeremiah the Prophet?

During the summer of 2009 I participated in a leadership training program at the YMCA of the Rocky Mountains in Estes Park, Colorado. Some friends and I occasionally visited another city called Boulder to chat with people on the street and share the gospel. This story is about a particularly amazing evening in Boulder.

I was in a group with two friends and we were excited to meet people and share God's love even though we were nervous and didn't really know how to get started. We decided to pray before pursuing a conversation. During our prayer, I felt very strongly that God was telling me we should remain where we were standing. It was a pretty weird idea so I hesitated to tell my friends about it. But one of them asked if we should get going so I replied saying, "I think we should just stay here for now." One of them asked why. Knowing that people freak out if I ever say I heard from God, I just insisted that it was a good location to scope out the area and find someone to pursue. After a few more awkward exchanges I finally admitted that I believe this is where God wants us to be. It was terribly uncomfortable.

Seemingly out of nowhere, as we were discussing my strange feeling, a woman approached me from behind. She had beautiful almond brown skin, a happily plump figure, and bare feet. Her eyes expressed uncertainty and boldness at the same time. She tapped my shoulder, I turned around, she said "you're really beautiful." To which I replied, "thank you! You're beautiful too." I asked for her name and how she was doing and we talked like old friends. It became clear very quickly that she was under the influence of some kind of drug (or bad spirit) which explained how she could bear walking barefoot on the scorching pavement. I asked her why she was barefoot and she explained saying "I threw my shoes into the river." I asked her why and she said she didn't know. I asked if she would like me to buy her new shoes but she said "it's okay, I do this all the time. But I have friends, some guys, they take care of me, they'll buy me shoes." I asked if her feet hurt. She was distracted and didn't exactly answer. I asked God what more I could say to keep the conversation going. I heard a reply that I should ask her about her birthday. "When is your birthday?" "August 16th." "Really? Mine is August 17!" Her birthday was the day before mine. That's cool but it still seemed like an odd thing to ask about until she spoke again, overjoyed. "I knew it! I knew there was something special about you! We're like sisters!" As she said that she scooped me up into a big surprise hug and squeezed hard. When she finally let go I noticed she was crying. We talked more and it seemed like knowing our birthdays were so close touched her deeply and made her much more comfortable. In the end I prayed with her, we thanked each other, and we went our separate ways. Well, I stayed put actually.

My two friends looked at me with wide eyes and expressed their excitement at what happened and that they would follow me as I followed God to find more people to engage in conversation. I wasn't sure what made them so convinced that I wasn't crazy any more but I thanked God and asked where we should go next.

An interesting thing is that God didn't always say exactly which way to go and sometimes he didn't say anything for a while. But we still ended up meeting a bunch of people with incredible stories and enticing burdens. I wish certain burdens were not so enticing; it makes them hard to recognize and even harder to give up.

Another good conversation that evening was with a man named Jeremiah and two of his friends. They were traveling across the country from East to West and had stopped in Boulder to rest and raise funds for the next portion of the trip. We found them around dusk on a side street. They sat with signs asking for food. We approached them with hope in our Hearts that it would be yet another encouraging discussion. We gave them the sandwiches we had bought for our dinner and asked them about their trip. Then Jeremiah pointed to me and said "there's something really strange about you. It's like there's light coming off of you, something good." I told him thanks and that I believe he was just seeing Jesus in me. At the mention of Jesus' name, his eyes went dark and he backed away from us ever so slightly. I figured that meant he wasn't too excited about Jesus. I asked him more about himself hoping to learn why he reacted that way. He shared with me that he had been working on writing a story and he wanted to share it with me. He handed me a weathered spiral notebook with child-like writing inside. I read a beautiful story about a man named Jeremiah and a woman named Rebecca. They met randomly one day and become good friends. When Jeremiah was discouraged, Rebecca told him great truth that lifted his spirit. After reading it I asked, "do you think you and I are going to be friends like the people in your story?" "Well, I don't know, but I just thought it was interesting that we have the same names as the characters and, you know, you give off that light and everything. It's just like how I imagine the Rebecca in my story." I agreed that it was interesting and asked if I could share with him the best news I'd ever heard. I told him about Jesus paying for our sins so we could be with God. Jeremiah's eyes went even darker than before and suddenly he seemed angry, hurt even. He said he didn't want to talk about that kind of thing. One of his friends who was listening in began to go on a rant about how he knew all that stuff about Jesus and he didn't want anything to do with it. He even said that he was planning to go to hell and that's what he wanted because in hell there's a party. He was angry and swearing and eventually walked away.

It was good for me to have those encounters that day. I learned the importance of following God's spirit, while being cautious of other spirits, and not letting anyone's doubt make me doubtful. I agree with some who would say it's dangerous to think that I can hear God's voice which is why I'm glad that 1 John 4 teaches us how to test spirits. And of course, I must be the first to admit that I am fallible and can mistake another spirit for God. But it would be tragic to dismiss Him based on the fear of that mistake. I'm convinced that what Jeremiah saw that day was God's presence resting on me because God and I had been talking. I thank God that he chooses to speak to us though we're nothing next to him. And because he speaks I will listen.

According to Romans 3.4 God is true even if every one else is a liar. I trust that he will bring every truth and lie to light.